Meditating on nature is one very powerful way to connect to God, and that’s because the earth is God’s creation. The creation reveals the mind and nature of its Creator. Psalm 19:1-4 (NIV) says,

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge. 3They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. 4Yet their voice ^b goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

How does the creation reveal God to us? How does it “proclaim the work of his hands?” Well, if you went into a museum and saw a beautiful painting, you would stop and admire it. You would want to know more about who painted it. And as you studied the painting, the qualities of it would reveal a lot about the character of the artist who painted it. So, in the same way that a painting is the work of an artist’s hands, the earth is the work of God’s hands. Therefore, “the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (v.1) and point us to the one who formed them.

I wish I had learned to see the earth this way when I was little. I don’t remember what I thought when I looked around, or if I ever took time to think of the earth this way. So, we will imagine we are seeing the earth for the first time. What do you see when you look around? Try to see it through the lens that God created the earth as a habitation for mankind, a place for us to live. He made light for us to see – the sun by day, and the moon and the stars by night. He separated the waters from the dry land. He caused the land to produce vegetation so that we would have food. And He filled the waters and the land with living creatures – fish, animals, and birds. So He got everything ready for man, prepared a place for him to live where he would have everything he needed for a pleasant life, and then he created man.

When we see the creation through this lens, it reveals God’s loving-kindness and tender regard for us. He is our Heavenly Father, and He created a beautiful habitation for us to live in. When we look around there is still much beauty in the world today, but it is important to remember that we never saw the world in the perfect condition it was in when Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden. We have only seen the creation in a fallen state in which it is subject to decay and death. In the Garden of Eden, everything was perfect. The grass did not wither, trees did not grow old, and flowers did not droop and die. Life was pleasant and free from any difficulties. When Adam and Eve sinned and fell, sin and death entered into the world (Rom. 5:12). After the Fall, life was attended with many hardships. It was harder to grow food and people’s bodies were vulnerable to illness and fatigue. So, plant life and animal life suffered because of the sin that was brought in as a result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience.

Let me take a minute to write about meditation so you can see the point I’m trying to make. In meditation, you take time to scan your body and the world around you and mindfully notice what is going on. You are answering the questions: where are you? how are you feeling? what do you see around you? As Christians, we answer those questions by saying that we are children of God, living in a world God created in which currently we are suffering under the weight of the effects of sin, and we are longing for the restoration that awaits us in heaven. That is how we approach meditation. We are taking time to contemplate who God is, who we are, where we are now on earth, and where we are going to be one day in heaven. We are trying to connect to a sense of God’s presence with us and especially His Holy Spirit who dwells within us. So when I am scanning my body in meditation, I take time to notice any symptoms I am having within the general context that my body is suffering the effects of sin in a fallen world. As Christians, the guilt of our own sins has been taken away, but we still live in bodies and in a world that suffers the corrupting, or decaying effects of sin. We will still go through an aging process, and we will still have to face death. But our hope lies in the fact that we have eternal life, and that at the end of our earthly life we will be fully restored and live in perfect peace and rest in heaven. The suffering we are experiencing now is temporary, but our restored state will be eternal. That is what Paul meant in 2 Cor. 4:18 when he said, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” And in Romans 8:18-25, Paul says,

“¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that^[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”

As you are meditating, take time to notice this groaning that is taking place both in people and in the entire creation. Then remember that we have hope of restoration and take time to connect to that longing feeling…the longing for life in heaven. So, connect to the groaning and then connect to that longing feeling…that feeling of waiting patiently for the future glory of heaven. You will find that taking 15 minutes to meditate on these things will help you have a greater awareness of God’s presence as you go throughout the day. You will start to see the world through a new lens…through the eyes of faith. And you will be able to connect more to that feeling of hope as we wait for the glory that is yet to be revealed – remembering that the beauty of God’s creation here on earth is only a glimpse of the beauty that awaits us in our eternal home.